PETA-Philippines Solidarity Trip
Educating Through Theater – PETA
Our final two days in the Philippines were spent with PETA (you can check them out at www.petatheater.com). PETA is acronym for the Philippine Educational Theatre Association. The organization began in 1967 and is in it’s 43rd theatre season. Their purpose is to “perform and educate.” They have a vision of “theatre in service of common good.”
Artist-teacher-cultural members of PETA educate Filipinos on social change and development through theatre. They do this through facilitating workshops (both nationally and internationally) and running projects and programs that teach Filipinos technical theatre skills alongside education on issues of the Republic. For example, their Children’s Theater Program trains young Filipinos and their educations to be successful in performance, while also focusing on child’s rights and youth participation.
PETA also networks with other theatre organizations in the Philippines and internationally. They make theatre available to schools and the greater community (including other provinces in the Philippines) through their mobile shows, and make their shows available to those who cannot afford them so that their form of education can be accessible to all Filipinos.
PETA has written, directed, and performed about 300 plays, the way true Filipino theatre should be, and strongly believes in producing productions that are “quality theatre”. We were invited to attend their adaptation of Asian poet and playwright Rabindranath Tagore’s “Post Office.” The story is of a young boy, Abel, who is nearing death but is determined to live fully in spite if never being able to leave his windowsill. He does this dreaming of the arrival of his letter from the King and sharing his visions with those who cross the path in front of his home.
The play centers on themes of children and death. For children of the Philippines, it expresses the capacity of the human spirit to dream of a life of happiness and to be alive in what they do despite the realities of poverty and disaster that make death a close neighbour.
The play was in Tagalog, and although I was able to understand most of it, there were moments where I was lost in translation. Yet in those moments where spoken language was a barrier to me, the layout of the performance, the body language of the actors, and their facial expressions were still more than enough to carry Abel’s story. As French and English speaking D&P participants, this expression beyond words was important for us and a testament to the exceptional quality of PETA’s productions.
We had been visiting PETA at the PETA Theatre Centre, what has been called a “landmark theatre in Art and Culture” in the Philippines. D&P was one of the patrons who supported the creation of theatre and PETA’s move to the heart of Quezon City in 2005. Our farewell program with all the host partners we had been in solidarity with over our two weeks was at this theatre, hosted by artist-teachers of PETA. It was a time for everyone to share in what they learned from one another over our visit and to look to the future and building the movement of development in Asia.
I am blessed to be a part of this movement for social change and development. I have seen what Filipinos are doing for other Filipinos to create a better Philippines. And I have been educated by PETA that we should cultivate our talents to serve the better good. Their achievements as a catalyst for social change provide an example of this for other educational theatres across the world.
Katrina Laquian
